YO! launches YO! Kitchen concept with table service
YO! Kitchen debuted at London's Westfield White City shopping centre this week, offering 40 Japanese-inspired sharing plates including curry, ramen and a sashimi 'pizza'.
The restaurant is spread across 2,400 sq ft and seats 90 diners across long shared wooden tables and booths.
Sushi is still on the menu, but is delivered by waiters rather than a rotating conveyor belt. Other dishes include robata sirloin steak with lotus root crisps (£16.40); vegan king oyster mushroom ramen (£11.20); and Hirata doughnuts (£5.80).
A second YO! Kitchen will open in Dundrum, Ireland next month.
“After 22 years and almost 100 YO! openings across Europe, Australia and the UAE, we are very excited to continue our Japanese food journey with a totally new concept,” says YO! CEO Richard Hodgson.
The company, founded as YO! Sushi in 1997, has sought to rebrand itself in recent years, dropping the second part of its moniker and broadening its menu.
YO! was bought by growth capital investor Mayfair Equity Partners for £81m in 2015.
It has since branched in to retail to become one of the largest sushi companies outside Japan after acquiring Canada’s Bento Sushi for £59.2m in 2017, Waitrose supplier Taiko Foods in 2018, and merging with US sushi kiosk business Snowfox this year.
